1.4 What can be learned from TEK for a sustainable pedagogy?
How can the transition to a participatory mind for ourselves and our students be promoted? How do indigenous and traditional societies transfer experiential knowledge and wisdom while instilling the need for reciprocity, respect, and reverence towards ecosystems? What can be learned from these practices that may help us develop more sustainable pedagogies?
Storytelling and myths
In indigenous practices, experiential knowledge is transferred from one generation to the other through stories that reflect the collective experience of people and the land they inhabit. They engage the heart and mind promoting the particular way of participating in the natural world that is central to TEK.
As Fernández-Llamazares and Cabeza (2018, p. 3) explain:
Indigenous stories are as diverse as the locations and IPs [Indigenous Peoples] they emanate from; yet, they share several commonalities that have given rise to the use of indigenous storytelling as a distinct term (e.g. Archibald 2008). For example, a common feature of indigenous stories is that communication with nature is a fact of life (Nanson 2011). By the same token, indigenous stories focus on holistic understandings of the whole (MacDonald 1998). Similarly, numerous scholars have argued that a common feature of indigenous stories, in contrast to other forms of oral history, is that they are always interactive (Silko 1981; De Groot & Zwaal 2007). The responses of the listeners influence the telling of the story, which emerges from coordinated efforts of teller and audience (Eder 2007).
The power of storytelling as a pedagogical tool is overshadowed by a scientific mindset in the modern world. Indigenous practices may help remind us how stories can raise interest, deliver content with a context, encourage a holistic way of thinking and promote transformative learning (Hofman, 2022).
Indigenous stories and myths provide original instructions for how to care for and relate to the land. They also offer mnemonic frameworks for storing that knowledge and are used as practical pedagogical tools for the transmission of knowledge.
Explore
Look at how the Human Animal Lab with The University of Oregon engaged their students in a project aimed at collecting TEK stories and created an encyclopaedia to encourage their incorporation into Western teaching:
- Talking Stories – Encyclopedia of Traditional Ecological Knowledge
1.3 Toward a participatory mind to come full circle